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DOCUMENT A
The most frightening words in the English language are “our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”
“If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”
“I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.” I looked down at the counter and every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, “What do you do?”
“We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”
“So when it goes down, you go down with it.”
“That’s right, sir.”
“How long will the computer be down?” I wanted to know.
“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There is no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down, it won’t answer us.”
After the girl told me they had no backup computer, I said, “Let’s forget the computer. What about your planes? They are still flying, aren’t they?”
“I can’t tell without asking the computer.”
“Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he’s flying to Washington.” I suggested.
“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”
“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”
“I wouldn’t know,” she said, pointing at the desk screen. “Only IT knows. It can’t tell me.”
By this time there were quite a few people standing in line. The words soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.The word “down” in the sentence ‘Our computer is down.’ means _____________.
| A．falling | B．downcast | C．drop | D．dead |
The best title of the article is _________.
| A．Asking the Computer |
| B．The Computer of the Airport |
| C．The Most Frightening Words |
| D．When the Computer Is Down |
What could the girl in the ticket office do for the passengers without asking the computer?
| A．She could answer the passengers’ questions |
| B．She could do nothing. |
| C．She could sell a ticket. |
| D．She could write out a ticket. |
“Slow City” — a recently launched project focused on preserving the traditional quality of life enjoyed in some of Italy’s smaller cities and towns. The project was born from the idea of the “Slow Food” movement — started in Italy in the 1980s — which promotes leisurely eating and the growing of local, healthy products to fight against the American fast-food style.
“The American urban model has invaded our cities, making Italian towns look the same. We want to stop this kind of globalization,” says Paolo Saturnini, an Italian mayor.
The “Slow City” project plans to emphasize the rich, cultural, culinary(厨房的) and artistic local traditions of each community.
Walking areas will be enlarged and squares and parks will be made greener with more plants. Car alarms and other noise that disturbs the peace will be banned, and ugly TV aerials(天线), advertising posters, and signs will be taken down.
City councils will also insist on the use of recycling and renewable energy sources, and will also introduce ecological transport systems. Parking will be made stress-free by creating more public parking areas, and easily accessible walkways and bike lanes will cross the city. But in the “Slow City” way, all improvements will probably come about slowly.
Thirty-two Italian city councils, which joined the “Slow City” program, have decided to take further steps in this direction by increasing the numbers of traditional family-style eating establishments, reducing noise pollution, and concentrating on making their towns friendlier for people to live in.
Organic local produce will be promoted in all restaurants and genetically modified foods(转基因食品) will be banned. “We can’t stop large, fast-food chains from coming here, but we hope that people who come to our towns will not want to eat exactly the same hamburger they can eat in Melbourne, London or Paris, but want something genuine and different,” said Saturnini.According to the passage, the “Slow City” project aims at _____.
| A．preventing Italy from being affected by America |
| B．beautifying the environment of small Italian cities and towns |
| C．calling on Italians to enjoy stress-free life |
| D．protecting the traditional Italian lifestyle |
From Paragraphs 4-5, we can infer that ______.
| A．cars in “Slow City” will have to go slowly |
| B．people can park their cars free of charge in “Slow City” |
| C．“Slow City” will take on an environmentally friendly look |
| D．advertising in “Slow City” will be banned |
Further measures will be included in the “Slow City” program EXCEPT _____.
| A．cutting down noise pollution |
| B．stop genetically modified foods |
| C．getting more towns involved in the project |
| D．building more family-style restaurants |
In Saturnini’s opinion, when traveling in “Slow Cities”, visitors_____.
| A．aren’t provided with fast food |
| B．will see few fast-food chains |
| C．can enjoy themselves like in London |
| D．can enjoy real Italian-style healthy food |
Whenever my dog, Barney, comes into the house after having been for a ride in the car, he runs to the pen(围栏) we have set up for him by the back door. It’s not something we intentionally trained him to do. The habit came simply because my husband tended to put him in his pen whenever they came in. After doing it a few times, Barney just figures that’s what you do when you come inside after a car ride.
It’s the same with your thinking. You get into the habit of thinking a certain way and then you’ll rarely question it after that.
This is especially true when you were growing up. You developed habits that just made things easier for you. You probably didn’t even think about them. That’s just the way it was and that’s what you did. Just like Barney thinks he has to go into his pen, you do things automatically as well.
For example, when you were a kid, you may have been told not to “talk back” and to just keep quiet about things that were bothering you. These are habits that might have worked to keep you safe and out of trouble when you were young.
Now that you're grown up, you may be finding that these previous strategies are actually causing you problems. In a relationship, not communicating isn't going to work as your partner can’t read your mind. What works when you're a child may not work when you become an adult.
When you decide you need to change your thoughts, your brain may at first feel that it's not a safe thing to do. Lots of practice and years of experience says it’s not. Also, you don’t know to question the thought. It’s a truth for you. The trick is to look at your results and see if your thoughts are the cause. Be willing to question your thinking and ask yourself if there are thoughts that are hindering (妨碍) you. As you are now in a different phase of your life, different strategies may be needed.As with the dog Barney, people _______.
| A．think in a habitual way |
| B．enjoy having a car ride |
| C．usually behave in a friendly way |
| D．have a good memory |
According to the passage, as a kid, one tends to _________.
| A．be afraid to make mistakes |
| B．have the experience of playing with a dog |
| C．learn much from adults like his/her parents |
| D．form a habit which can keep his/her out of trouble |
In the writer’s opinion, adults should _______.
| A．not“talk back” |
| B．avoid causing any problem |
| C．change the habit which will bring troubles |
| D．value their habits formed in their childhood |
It can be concluded from the passage that ________.
| A．the author’s husband must be good at training dogs |
| B．childhood is the best time for developing good habits |
| C．one can change his/her life by changing his/her thoughts |
| D．you should change all your childhood habits when you grow up |
When I first saw the bookAlice in Lace,I thought I was going to like it. And as it turned out, I love it! I love books about life and being a kid. AndAlice in Laceis just that kind. It’s a humorous book about being thirteen and the problems kids might face. Alice and her friends get a strange assignment from their totally cool teacher, Mr. Everett. It was like playing the game of “Life,” but you had to act it out.
So Pamela is pregnant, Elizabeth buys a car and Alice gets married. Well, of course, Pamela wasn’t really pregnant, but she walked around with a pillow under her shirt to get people’s reactions. Elizabeth didn’t really buy a car, but she went to the car lot and made the sales guy think she was. The whole class got assignments like these! I would love to do something like that for school.
In the book Alice has a lot to think about. “Getting married is hard!” Alice says. She has to plan the ceremony, the honeymoon, find a place to live, pay for furniture and two months’ rent and food. Maybe she and her “husband” could work it out — if they were getting on fine!
Although this book was funny, it really made me think about how problems like these could really mess up your life. Take teenage pregnancy for example. How could you have a baby and stay in school? You couldn’t find a babysitter every day to stay with your kid. A child really consumes your life. I understand what the teacher was trying to do. He was trying to discourage the class from getting into these problems by giving them a glimpse of life. As someone about to become a teenager myself, I can say sometimes a story makes you think about what’s up ahead.
Overall, I would say this book is wonderful. My favorite part of the book is discovering that if I like it, there are seven other Alice books I can check out at my local library. I love this book, and I hope you will too.We can infer from the passage that Pamela, Elizabeth and Alice _______.
| A．turn out to be the author’s classmates |
| B．are characters in Alice in Lace |
| C．get along quite well |
| D．become dismissed from school |
By saying “getting married is hard” in the paragraph 3, Alice means ______.
| A．life isn’t easy as expected |
| B．it is hard to deal with her husband |
| C．she regrets getting married |
| D．it’s fun to get married |
Why did Mr. Everett give his students such assignments?
| A．To encourage them to enjoy a meaningful life. |
| B．To prevent them getting into those troubles at an early age. |
| C．To make them realize the hardship of life. |
| D．To teach them how to make a living. |
The author writes the passage mainly to _____.
| A．advise us to buy Alice in Lace |
| B．tell us how wonderful Mr. Everett’s idea is |
| C．share her inspiration from Alice in Lace |
| D．show off her reading ability |
Television will turn 86 years old on September 7, 2013, and it has never looked better. In its youth, television was a piece of furniture with a tiny, round screen showing unclear pictures of lowbudget programs. In spite of its shortcomings, it became well-received. Between 1950 and 1963, the number of American families with a television jumped from 9% to 92% of the population.
As the audience got larger, the technology got better. Television sets became more reliable through the 1960s. Both of the reception and the picture improved. The major networks started broadcasting programs in color.
Even greater improvements were coming according to Sanford Brown, who wrote an article for the Post in 1967. Surprisingly, just about every prediction he made in the article became a reality. For example: All sets in the notdistant future will be color instruments. He also predicted that TV sets would become smaller, simpler, more reliable and less expensive and may forever put the TV repairman out of work. Smaller sets do not, of course, mean smaller screens. TV engineers expect screens to get much bigger. However, today's 3D TV is even farther away, if it's coming at all. There is some doubt whether the public would be eager to pay for it, in view of people's cold reception given to 3D movies.
But the technology with the greatest potential, according to Brown, was cable television (有线电视), which was still in its early stages then. As he predicted, the future of cable television was highly interactive. It wasn't cable television that gave Americans their electronic connection to the world, however. It was the Internet. He even foresaw the future office: using picture phones, bigscreen televisions for conferences, and computers providing information, at the touch of a button.
Brown ever said, “The future of television is no longer a question of what we can invent. It's a question of what we want.”What can we infer about television sets in the 1960s?
| A．They were very popular with Americans. |
| B．Their appearance remained unchangeable. |
| C．They showed blackandwhite pictures. |
| D．Their pictures were of poor quality. |
Which of the followings did Sanford Brown fail to predict?
| A．Television's good quality. |
| B．The invention of 3D TV. |
| C．The more functions of TV. |
| D．The potential of cable TV. |
From the passage we know _________.
| A．TV will certainly take the place of computers |
| B．There won’t be further improvement on TV |
| C．TV repairmen will be out of work in the future |
| D．3D movies don’t appeal to people very much |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．The shortcomings of television. |
| B．The advantages of television. |
| C．The development of television. |
| D．The invention of television. |